Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas has taken a delicate dig at arch-rival Nick Kyrgios, saying he hopes the Australian “enjoys his holidays” after he withdrew from the United Cup on the eleventh hour.
World No.22 Kyrgios was set to headline the Thursday night session in Sydney of the inaugural event with a bumper match-up towards Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie, however pulled out 24 hours earlier than the match.
The Wimbledon finalist is believed to have injured his ankle in an exhibition event in Dubai final week and has withdrawn from the mixed-team occasion to make sure he’s absolutely match for the Australian Open.
Tsitsipas, who had a heated match-up with Kyrgios earlier this 12 months at Wimbledon, had a cheeky dig on the Australian when fronting the media on Wednesday.
“I don’t see it as a surprise. I hope he enjoys his holidays,” Tsitsipas stated.
The Australian workforce solely discovered about Kyrgios’ withdrawal minutes earlier than they fronted the media, with captain Samantha Stosur saying she hadn’t spoken to him about his choice.
“I’m not going to speak for Nick’s summer, we’ve got to leave that for him,“ Stosur said.
Kyrgios and Tsitsipas teamed up earlier this month in Saudi Arabia at the Diriyah Tennis Cup, losing to Hubert Hurkacz and Dominic Stricker in straight sets despite their rivalry.
Tsitsipas indicated he did not enjoy the experience.
“It was tough to concentrate for sure,” he stated.
“I don’t know where that energy comes from. There’s just so much of it.
“You want to go about your thing, you want to concentrate on your half of the court, and there’s just noise coming from the other side of it. It is distracting, it’s not easy.
“For sure in the future, having to face that at some point again, that is something that will have to be at its best in order to overcome that sort of obstacle that is presented on the other side of the net.”
World No.4 Tsitsipas would be the most important occasion of the primary day in Perth when he faces Bulgarian and World No.28 Grigor Dimitrov within the morning session.
“I have to be ready for everything. I’m sure he has done a lot, put in a lot of work during the pre-season,” he stated.
“He is probably the freshest he will ever be this season. I need to approach it with the right mentality and get into the match from early on.”
